Team Sky went into today’s fifth stage of the Eneco Tour determined to try something to help defending champion Edvald Boasson Hagen make a big push for the leader’s jersey. He started the day third overall, one minute and 24 seconds behind race leader Tony Martin (HTC Columbia), and launched an attack on the Dooedeman climb, but strong team-work by Martin’s team-mates meant that he was unable to get a lasting gap.
"We were aiming to isolate Tony Martin and then try and do something late on with Edvald. The boys did a really good job,” said Sky directeur sportif Steven de Jongh.
"But Columbia came back pretty quickly and with about sixty kilometres to go we realised they just had too many riders still there in support of Martin. So at that point we decided to let them do the work to get the break back.”
Garmin Transitions rider Jack Bobridge clipped away from that day-long escape group, using the time trial ability that won him a Espoir world TT title last year to solo the final two kilometres. He finished four seconds ahead of the next riders, while Martin and Boasson Hagen came home in the first big chase group 15 seconds back.
De Jongh praised the Team Sky riders, saying that he was very happy with how they rode but acknowledged that things just didn’t work out their way despite their best efforts.
The ProTour race continues tomorrow with a penultimate stage running 205 kilometres from Bilzen to Heers. It includes the wall-like Mur de Huy climb seen each year in Flèche Wallonne, and Team Sky will try again to put Boasson Hagen back in the driving steat.
De Jongh admits though that it will be a very tough. “I think today was the harder day,” he said. “The climbs were closer to the finish line whereas tomorrow there's 32km after the last of them. You would think it's going to be pretty controlled.”
Martin has the benefit of his current team; it is one of the best in controlling a peloton, having honed the technique over years of setting up sprints for Mark Cavendish and André Greipel.
That, plus his own strong form means that the German remains in a good position. However Boasson Hagen and Team Sky will do everything they can to turn things upside down.